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Jay's Articles

Posted on 7/21/2016 By Jay

July 25, 2016

MARK PICKUP

A monstrous notion has become law. Assisting the suicides of sick and disabled Canadians is legally permitted. It is now a new right - the right to death. The pied pipers of this new right use misleading euphemisms such as "medical assistance in dying" (MAID). A more accurate, precise and honest description of this new reality is "medical killing."

Posted on 7/21/2016 By Jay

July 25, 2016

JOHN CONNELLY

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
August 7, 2016

In this week's Gospel, the words of Jesus to his disciples should encourage us all: "Do not be afraid any longer, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom." We all have fears. Fear of death. Fear of being destitute. Fear of not being loved. Conscious fears and unconscious fears. I remember as a small child checking to make sure no monsters were hiding in my closet. I was afraid some unnamed fear was going to sneak up on me when I was alone.

Posted on 7/21/2016 By Jay

July 11/25, 2016

It was yet another U.S. Supreme Court ruling lifting state-legislated restrictions on abortion. The rulings are almost routine, but they do give a peephole into the mindset of those who favour legal abortion. The 2013 Texas law required abortion clinics in the state to meet the same safety requirements of other walk-in medical clinics, in regards to staffing, buildings and equipment. As well, it required abortion doctors to have admitting privileges at a local hospital.

Posted on 7/21/2016 By Jay

July 11/25, 2016

LASHA MORNINGSTAR

Mistakes are horrid. They happen usually when one is rushed, careless or does not follow the rules. These can range from violating rules of the road to society's rules, to family rules, to religious rules, to workplace rules and even rules about rules. Discipline slips. Or, one does not follow the system they have made for themselves. A mistake is made. When that happens one feels such shame, remorse. Apologies fly to the point of anguish. You vow to never break a certain rule again.

Posted on 7/21/2016 By Jay

July 11/25, 2016

JOE GUNN

One year ago, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) released its 500-page final report on Indian residential schools: Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future. Most importantly, the TRC issued 94 calls to action. Several of these recommendations should directly impact the ways people of faith live out our covenantal relationship with the indigenous people of this land.

Posted on 7/21/2016 By Jay

July 25, 2016

DOUGLAS ROCHE

"There's nothing you can do about anything in the world anymore." These anguished words of a survivor in the Orlando mass shooting seared my mind. Out of the agony of losing a loved one to wholesale murder came this cry of despair. I watched his face on TV. His eyes seemed vacant, his body numbed by the shock of the mayhem in a gay nightclub where a gunman murdered 49 people.

Posted on 7/6/2016 By Jay

July 11, 2016

Almost essential to the proper nurturing of young children is a strong, supportive family. As children grow older, their need for community does not disappear, but expands. "It takes a village to raise a child," it is commonly said. Indeed, it does take a family, and it does take a village or a neighbourhood. Many children have grown to have outstanding lives without such roots, but they have often triumphed in spite of their background, not because of it.

Posted on 7/6/2016 By Jay

July 11, 2016

FR. RON ROLHEISER, omi

More than 2,400 years ago Socrates wrote these words: "I am a citizen, not of Athens or Greece, but of the world." Today more than ever these are words we need to appropriate because our world and we ourselves are sinking into unhealthy forms of tribalism where we are concerned primarily with taking care of our own. We see this everywhere. We tend to think that this lives only in circles of extremism, but it is being advocated with an ever-intensifying moral fervour virtually every place in the world.

Posted on 7/6/2016 By Jay

July 11, 2016

KATHLEEN GIFFIN

Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
July 17, 2016

I've always been able to relate to Martha, the busy responsible sister. The story of Jesus' rebuke to her, in support of Mary who abdicates her responsibility to do her share in caring for guests, has long felt unfair to me. Yet at the same time I have great admiration for a friend of mine who has the capacity to be truly present to the people she is with, whether they are friends or strangers, even when that results in neglecting the job at hand.

Posted on 7/6/2016 By Jay

July 11, 2016

One main lesson of the recent debate over assisted suicide in Canada is the increasingly marginalized place of religious believers in the public square. The weight of Canadian Catholics, Evangelicals and Muslims, in particular, was against the legalization of assisted suicide. Yet, unlike earlier times, the voice of the faithful had little impact on this issue.